Maxwell house pick-me-up

Number 27 Maxwell Road in Rathmines, Dublin is a good example of how to squeeze the utmost space from a terraced house in the city. It has been extended to 1,206 sq ft, but that doesn't include an attic conversion providing another 230 sq ft.

There are two interconnected reception rooms on the ground floor, a galley kitchen and adjoining dining room, as well as a utility room and shower room.

On the first floor are three bedrooms and another shower room. The attic room above could be suitable for use as a home office.

The front garden has a lawn which in neighbouring houses has been paved to allow off-street parking. At the back is a small patio.

You could reach St Stephen's Green on foot in a little over half an hour.

North's Property (01 433 2222) is the agent, and the price is €575,000.

Sail ho in Mayo

If learning to sail around Clew Bay sounds like a plan, then a property at Rosmoney, about eight kilometres from Westport, might be a good place to start.

'Seahaven' is a detached, four-bedroom house with its own sea views, and it's less than 10 minutes' walk from Rosmoney Harbour, home of Mayo Sailing Club.

At the front of the house is a sitting room with views of the lake. A conservatory leads to the sitting room and the kitchen.

The en suite master bedroom is at the back of the house, and there are three other bedrooms and a family bathroom.

The front garden slopes down to the lake shore, while the back garden has a raised patio, and the grounds also include an orchard, a pond, and a detached garage.

It's on the market for €257,000 through O'Malley Properties in Westport (098 26146).

Two's company

Numbers 194 and 195 New Vale, Shankill, Co Dublin are a pair of tiny cottages built in the early 20th Century to house labourers. They're in a dejected state, but someone with a budget to buy and fix up both could end up with something special.

Number 194 (above) is 721 sq ft, consisting of an entrance hall, two bedrooms, a kitchen, living room, bathroom and storeroom.

Number 195 is 700 sq ft, with an entrance hall, a living room and two bedrooms. A small extension at the back houses the kitchen and bathroom. While 195 has a small garden at the front and a good-sized garden at the back, 194 stands on a promising half-acre site.

Both houses are being sold by Savills South Dublin City (01 288 5011) – 194 New Vale for €380,000 and 195 for €345,000.

Flat pack in Dublin

Number 368 Harold's Cross Road, Dublin 6, is a rather stately two-storey over-basement Victorian residence. There's no doubt it could be converted back into a family home, but it would be no ordinary task.

The house is made over to nine flats at present. This means you've got nine toilets, nine kitchenettes and nine immersion heaters to contend with, should you want to attempt the conversion.

While some period features are still intact inside the house, the windows, for instance, have been replaced with aluminium.

There's a longish front garden, setting the house well back from busy Harold's Cross Road, and a west-facing garden at the back. And there's also a garage adjoining.

Agents REA Orchard (01 4900687) say it's yielding rents of over €70,000 a year at present. It's on the market for €790,000.

Hold fort on Castle Road

The National Inventory of Architectural heritage describes Number 54 Castle Road, Dundalk, as "a fine example of domestic architecture of the late Victorian period".

Number 54 is a two-storey house with attic built around 1890 on Castle Road which, as the selling agents point out, is "one of the only leafy streets remaining" in the town.

A two-storey extension at the back of the house has taken its internal dimensions up to 1,442 square feet. It has two main reception rooms as well as a kitchen, four bedrooms, a main bathroom and two guest toilets.

The house is set a little back from the street with a railed garden at the front, and a lawned back garden with a shed. It's about 300 metres from the N52, and hence about an hour's drive from Dublin via the M1.

Small blessings

Househunters with downsizing in mind may be interested in a small, terraced cottage off Drummartin Road in Goatstown.

Even with the addition of an extension at the back, Number 34 Drummartin Terrace still measures only 646 square feet, and there are low-maintenance gardens front and rear.

The porch gives access to a living room with a fireplace and a wood-burning stove. This room leads into a galley kitchen and from there to a dining room, which has patio doors.

There are two bedrooms and a bathroom, and a floored and wired attic storage area. There's a gravelled garden at the front with space to park, and a granite patio at the back.

Dundrum Luas stop is about a 15-minute walk away. The agent is Des Lalor Auctioneers (01 247 8851) and the asking price is €400,000.

Grist to the mill

Boyne View in Slane is a terrace of six two-storey limestone houses built in the late 18th Century to accommodate the workers at the nearby mill.

It's on Mill Hill, across the road from Slane Castle, and its elevated position makes for good views of the river. And unlike many of the historical buildings in the town, Boyne View is well preserved and still in use.

Number 6 is the last in the terrace and still has original features including a half-door at the front, high ceilings and sash windows.

On the ground floor is a sitting room with cast-iron stove, a kitchen/dining room and an office or utility room. Upstairs is the master bedroom with cast-iron fireplace, the bathroom, and two more bedrooms.

The property is for sale for €190,000 with Sherry FitzGerald Geraghty in Ashbourne (01 835 0577).

A Grand place to watch

Dublin's canals have slipped a little out of favour lately, thanks to reports of flesh-eating bugs attacking youngsters swimming there.

But from the windows of Number 5 Windsor Terrace, at Portobello, you can watch the Grand Canal's swans float lazily by, and as long as you resist the urge to jump in, there should be no danger.

Number 5 is a Victorian terraced house of some 1,410 square feet. Perhaps unusually, the room at the front ground floor, with the canal views, is a bedroom.

Behind this is a dining room and, at the end of the hallway, the kitchen. This leads into a living room at the back of the house.

Upstairs is the master bedroom with en-suite, two more bedrooms and a bathroom.

Brock DeLappe in Kilmainham is the agent (01 633 4446), and the property is on the market for €600,000.

There in Clare

The West Clare Railway closed in 1961, after carrying holidaymakers to the resort towns of the West Clare coast for almost 75 years.

Railway Cottage, at Applevale in Corofin, was one of the crossing guard's cottages along the route.

It's a small, single-storey cottage on a half-acre site. Inside there's a hallway, living room with fireplace, kitchen, shower room, and two bedrooms. There's an adjoining shed, a gravelled area to the front, and a grassy side garden with road frontage.

Corofin village, about five kilometres away, is known as the gateway to the Burren. It's about a 20-minute drive to the M18 at Ennis.

DNG O'Sullivan Hurley in Ennis is the selling agent (065 684 0200) and the asking price is €65,000.